


snowed in

by somewherenorth



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: 12daysoferuri, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Fluffy, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Rated for swearing, Slow Burn, but thats ok, eruri - Freeform, pretty sub par
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-25 01:47:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22007941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somewherenorth/pseuds/somewherenorth
Summary: when the weather gets too bad to work, Levi and Erwin spend more time together and grow closer. set in Levi's second winter on the surface. for #12DaysOfEruri
Relationships: Levi/Erwin Smith
Comments: 4
Kudos: 53





	snowed in

**Author's Note:**

> set pre-canon, in Levi's second winter on the surface. He and Erwin are growing close but do not yet have a physical relationship. It's a little sub par and boring but I haven't written in a while, so it's something I guess. This _was_ for #12DaysOfEruri, hosted by BuckArts on twitter but now it's very late lmao.
> 
> the writing is pretty rusty, and it's quite mundane overall. but I like writing eruri so I thought I may as well post it

The snows came late that year. It was Levi's second on the surface, and he'd been anticipating the cold snap that he _knew_ would come. It wasn't until weeks into the festival season, a couple of days after Levi's birthday, when the first blizzards rolled in. And once the snow started, it didn't stop. Days of grey skies and howling storms and biting winds followed, blanketing everything from the tree-lined rivers to the village-crowned hills in a clear half-metre of snow.

Among the few souls left at the barracks over the holidays was Squad Leader Erwin and Levi. Neither Levi nor Erwin had family to return to, and both vowed to work over the break, ever-faithful to their cause. Erwin settled with planning expedition strategies, while Levi spent his time helping with the most mundane, painfully mind-numbing paperwork he could imagine. The days were short, dark, and brutal - they lost a couple of horses in the cold - but with the man-eating ferocity of the winter storms came a reprieve. Erwin and Levi, men who usually worked themselves into the ground, finally had an excuse to rest.

The snow made travel treacherous, the ice made training dangerous, the cold made work miserable. There was no point doing paperwork without a way to send it, no way to attend meetings, no way to _work_. The first evening of their strange holiday came one night when Levi busied himself watching the snow from the window in Erwin's office.

"Just keeps snowing," Levi remarked, peering down to the courtyard below.

In the dark he could barely make out the snowflakes. The wind howled, lashing against the window and rattling in the cracks in the stone walls. It drowned the silence between them. The weather was violent and, really, intimidating in a way Levi hadn't expected before he'd witnessed it firsthand, but it was beautiful.

"Mmh," Erwin agreed, half-distracted from his work but not looking up, "does this most years. It's great fun when you're a child, not so good for _us_ though."

"Yeah," Levi deadpanned.

"It's a real bother," Erwin sighed, sounding exhausted as he leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair, "I'm about to run out of parchment. I can't send my letters. The ink will run out before long, too. Quite the inconvenience." 

"Hardly any point working with this shitty weather going on," Levi muttered, surly and exhausted, "it's fucking stupid."

There was a pause.

"You know, you're quite right, Levi."

Levi looked over at Erwin, taken aback by his response. He was met by a sincere expression. And so, from then on, they didn't work.

Levi was glad to see Erwin away from the desk, away from the work, able to relax. For the first time in a long time, the weariness in his face ebbed. The deep-gouged frown-lines eased and even his hair seemed to have more of a bounce. He smiled more, and more genuinely. Sometimes, foolishly, Levi found himself smiling back. He couldn't quite believe he'd ever wanted to kill this man; away from the ruse of squad leader, Erwin was more tolerable than ever.

There was nothing to do but eat, sleep, read, and talk as they whiled the time away cowering indoors away from the blizzards. Snow piled up and neither cared to shovel it aside. Hours turned into days and Levi was aware of spending too much of his time with Erwin. Though he was horribly aware of the time they spent together, he could do nothing to stop it. It was natural to want to be around Erwin, Levi mused, as natural as it was for fish to be in the water or the birds in air. It was how things were, and it was not for him to question _why_. Besides, feelings like this were too complicated to unpick. Levi had no patience for such trivial things.

That evening they both stood in the stone archway in the courtyard, basking in the blueish haze of evening-turning-night. The snow fell more gently now. The winds had died down. Their breaths curled up into the air like smoke. It made Levi think fleetingly of fat merchants and their disgusting cigars, but his thoughts hazed over when behind him he felt Erwin, watching the snow in silence. The cold hurt, aching deep in their bones and chilling their souls, but this was the most comfortable Levi had been in long time.

"It's cold as shit," Levi remarked suddenly, completely out of the blue, "never got this cold underground. It was always stuffy."

Erwin made an interested noise before he spoke, one that made Levi roll his eyes, "do you like it?"

"Sure," Levi shrugged, "at least it doesn't stink of corpses. The snow's clean, too. So's the air."

He _loved_ the snow, and he suspected Erwin knew that. Erwin was a sharp man, sharper than he let on. Levi had a deep, creeping feeling that Erwin saw right through him - and, horribly, Levi didn't hate it.

"Was it the same year-round down there?" Erwin asked, ever the interrogator. 

Erwin sounded unsure, almost awkward or nervous. Levi wondered fleetingly why.

Levi rolled his eyes again. "Kind of. The fuck do you care? It's colder in winter, I guess. But the weather never changed, it was always the same."

He didn't mind telling Erwin these things, strangely enough. These were experiences he clutched close to his heart, things he believed he would never tell someone from the surface -things he refused to tell others when they asked. But Levi felt no judgement, just a rueful fascination and a softness in the eyes that he hadn't seen anyone else wear. He felt Erwin's hand on his shoulder, heavy and reassuring. He didn't shy away from it - Erwin was a good horseman, he knew how to handle the beasts without spooking them, he knew when to approach and when to draw back, he read them like books. Levi wondered faintly if that helped, if that was why he could touch Levi whereas any other man would have lost half his arm.

 _Enough_. He was starting to think too much.

"Alright, enough of the fucking snow," Levi said finally, turning around to head back indoors, "I want tea. We'll freeze our damn balls off if we stay out much longer."

Erwin chuckled and followed him into the barracks.


End file.
